GOP Senate hopeful Gomez takes to campaign trail

Updated: Feb 28, 2013 - 8:27 AM

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GOP Senate hopeful Gomez takes to campaign trail

QUINCY, Mass. (AP) - Gabriel Gomez, a businessman and former Navy SEAL,
formally launched on Thursday his bid for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by John
Kerry, positioning him as a Washington outsider and "new kind of
Republican" who defies political labels.

The 47-year-old son of Colombian immigrants made his official announcement
at an American Legion's Hall in Quincy, and planned later stops in the central
and western parts of the state. The Cohasset resident also took his first
questions from reporters - after being kept away from the media by his campaign
since releasing a video two weeks ago stating his intention to run.

Gomez said he favored term limits for Congress and a lifetime ban on
lobbying by all former House and Senate members. Asked about the $85 billion in
automatic federal spending cuts scheduled to take effect Friday, he said no
politicians in Washington should get paid until they resolve the fiscal
stalemate.

"I may not be the most popular guy in D.C. when I say this, but until
they figure out what they are going to do on the sequester, I don't think any
congressmen or the senators or the president should have a paycheck," he
said.

"And that includes Congressmen Markey and Lynch," he added,
referring to U.S. Reps. Edward Markey and Stephen Lynch, the two Democrats
running for the Senate seat.

Gomez, Norfolk state Rep. Daniel Winslow and former U.S. Attorney Michael
Sullivan all say they've collected enough signatures to get on the April 30
Republican primary ballot.

The special election to replace Kerry, who resigned to become U.S. Secretary
of State, is June 25.

While state GOP officials have pledged neutrality in the race, Gomez has the
support of at least one high-profile Massachusetts Republican.

Kerry Healey, who served as lieutenant governor in former Gov. Mitt Romney's
administration, appeared at Thursday's campaign launch and said Gomez was a new
face in the party who could excite voters in the way that former Sen. Scott
Brown did in his upset victory in the 2010 special election to succeed the late
Sen. Edward Kennedy.

"I see a lot of parallels between his candidacy and Scott
Brown's," said Healey, who added that she has great respect for Winslow
and Sullivan.

On social issues, Gomez said gays should have the right to marry and that
while he opposed abortion he did not advocate overturning the landmark Roe v.
Wade decision legalizing abortion.

"I was raised Catholic and by faith I am pro-life. But this is a very
contentious issue, I understand that. I'm not going down to D.C. to change the
law," he said.

Noting his own family story - his parents emigrated from Colombia a year
before he was born and he learned Spanish before English - Gomez said he had a
"personal stake" in the immigration debate. He said he backed a
bipartisan plan recently offered by eight U.S. senators that would offer a path
to citizenship for some illegal immigrants while also toughening border
security.

Gomez rejected attempts to label him politically.

"Sure, I'm running as a Republican, but I'm a new kind of
Republican," he said in his speech. "Obviously as a Republican I hold
some conservative views . but I'm an independent thinker, and I have no
interest in going to Washington to engage in partisan trench warfare."

Like the president, he said members of Congress should be subject to term
limits but did not offer any specifics. A campaign aide later told reporters
that Gomez would pledge to serve no more than two full terms in the Senate.

Gomez donated to President Barack Obama's first campaign in 2008 but
supported Romney last year. Democrats have criticized him for his association
with a group that released a controversial video that accused Obama of taking
too much credit for the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin-Laden.

Gomez, who left the Navy in 1996, has in the past credited Obama for giving
the green light for the raid, but criticized the president for using it as a
talking point in his reelection campaign.

Massachusetts Democratic Party Chairman John Walsh faulted Gomez for
offering "fluffy, esoteric proposals" like term limits instead of
taking about real issues like anti-gun trafficking laws.

Walsh also criticized all three of the GOP candidates for advocating a
"cuts-only" approach to avoiding the "sequester" that would
not include some tax increases on the wealthy.

"Are we going to send someone to Washington who essentially cancels out
Elizabeth Warren's votes?" Walsh said, referring to the Democratic senator
who defeated Brown last year.